Advice for buying a 3.5" HDD USB enclosure

[Elliot B.]

I am looking for a reasonably priced 3.5" HDD USB enclosure.

I will be popping a 18 TB Western Digital Purple Pro HDD into it.

I have found the following enclosures that support 18TB hard drives and include a 12v power adapter:

Yottamaster DF6
Supports UASP, unsure about TRIM
£25 from Amazon UK

Orico CP35C3
Supports UASP / TRIM
£29 from Amazon UK

Orico M35C3
Supports UASP / TRIM
£35 from Amazon UK

These supports 18TB hard drives, but are not available in the UK:

• LC-Power LC-35U3-C
• Orico HM35C3
• Orico 3139U3

Any thoughts on the three above that are available in the UK?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

I haven't heard of Yottamaster. Could be a UK thing.

TBH, just buy with the look vs price. I had good experiences with Sabrent or Orico.

I currently have this one (in US) https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2G4JIFPGEIBSA&keywords=hdd+external+case&qid=1675990661&sprefix=hdd+external+case%2Caps%2C121&sr=8-3

They pretty much all work the same..

[ThaCrip]

I got a Orico 6518US3 (v1) 2.5"/3.5" HDD enclosure (USB3) (i.e. https://www.orico.cc/us/product/detail/3534.html ; mine basically looks the same but I got a power button about a inch above the Orico logo. NOT in the back of the unit like shown. but I wonder if they changed to that setup with later models since mine is 'v1' and I heard some people having issues with power button years ago but I don't know the details as I never had a issue with mine but I always leave the units power switch to a ON state (see below)) that I think supports up to 8TB probably some odd years ago now which I think ill be good for many years to come as I can't see myself using a hard drive larger than 8TB in that anytime soon since even if I were to get a hard drive larger than 8TB, it will almost certainly go into my main PC and one of the HDD's currently in my main PC (which are all in the 4-6TB range) would be removed to use externally on this Orico unit for external storage.

I leave my power switch on the device always on and have it connected to a power station that I can simply flip a switch to turn it off (so it's kind of like unplugging the AC adapter and plugging it back in by flipping the switch on my power station). so for example with the unit off, I slide in a hard drive into the unit, then flip power switch, it powers up and I do some transfers, after that's done, I unmount the device and safety disconnect it from the OS, then power off the switch.

also, if I plan on letting a hard drive run in that unit for any length of time I got a external USB powered 120mm fan I sit on top to blow some air across it to keep heat down on 3.5" HDD's.

p.s. I use this unit on Linux and it works out-of-the-box. also, I have that Orico unit plugged into a USB 3 port on a Vantec USB3 device (model = UGT-PC345) connected to my motherboards PCI-E x1 slot on my main PC to give it a USB3 ports as my motherboard only has USB2 (I had my motherboard since May 2012). I also have another device to give me a couple of front USB3 ports that I connected to that PCI-E Vantec devices 20-pin connector.

Edited February 10, 2023 by ThaCrip

[PaulATMOS]

On 10/02/2023 at 15:03, ThaCrip said:

I got a Orico 6518US3 (v1) 2.5"/3.5" HDD enclosure (USB3) (i.e. https://www.orico.cc/us/product/detail/3534.html ; mine basically looks the same but I got a power button about a inch above the Orico logo. NOT in the back of the unit like shown. but I wonder if they changed to that setup with later models since mine is 'v1' and I heard some people having issues with power button years ago but I don't know the details as I never had a issue with mine but I always leave the units power switch to a ON state (see below)) that I think supports up to 8TB probably some odd years ago now which I think ill be good for many years to come as I can't see myself using a hard drive larger than 8TB in that anytime soon since even if I were to get a hard drive larger than 8TB, it will almost certainly go into my main PC and one of the HDD's currently in my main PC (which are all in the 4-6TB range) would be removed to use externally on this Orico unit for external storage.

I leave my power switch on the device always on and have it connected to a power station that I can simply flip a switch to turn it off (so it's kind of like unplugging the AC adapter and plugging it back in by flipping the switch on my power station). so for example with the unit off, I slide in a hard drive into the unit, then flip power switch, it powers up and I do some transfers, after that's done, I unmount the device and safety disconnect it from the OS, then power off the switch.

also, if I plan on letting a hard drive run in that unit for any length of time I got a external USB powered 120mm fan I sit on top to blow some air across it to keep heat down on 3.5" HDD's.

p.s. I use this unit on Linux and it works out-of-the-box. also, I have that Orico unit plugged into a USB 3 port on a Vantec USB3 device (model = UGT-PC345) connected to my motherboards PCI-E x1 slot on my main PC to give it a USB3 ports as my motherboard only has USB2 (I had my motherboard since May 2012). I also have another device to give me a couple of front USB3 ports that I connected to that PCI-E Vantec devices 20-pin connector.

What sort of R/W speeds are you getting with the drive in the enclosure? Much difference compared to having the hard drive directly connected to a Sata port?

[Arceles]

I got one ORICO which died on me and it was a very common issue after 1| year or so, do not recommend it.

I have had this for more than 3 years and works excellent. Hugely recommended:

 

https://www.vantecusa.com/products_detail.php?p_id=46&p_name=NexStar+TX%2C+USB+3.0+Hard+Drive+External+Enclosure&pc_id=2&pc_name=3.5"+Enclosures&pt_id=1&pt_name=Hard+Drive+Enclosures

[Xenon]

On 09/02/2023 at 20:00, Mindovermaster said:

I haven't heard of Yottamaster. Could be a UK thing.

TBH, just buy with the look vs price. I had good experiences with Sabrent or Orico.

I currently have this one (in US) https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2G4JIFPGEIBSA&keywords=hdd+external+case&qid=1675990661&sprefix=hdd+external+case%2Caps%2C121&sr=8-3

They pretty much all work the same..

I have had no problem with Sabrent. I would recommend them. 

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

I have a 5 bay Yottamaster that's about a year old, no problems yet.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Some general things I look for in an external USB enclosure:

• all metal housing (preferred) or at least a mixture of metal and plastic
• some form of shock mounting (silicone grommets for drive on the inside, rubber bumpers or casing on the outside, etc.)
• uses standard, replaceable screws
• if requiring external power (for a 3.5" or 5.25" drive), either has an internal power supply (more common for 5.25") or uses a common, barrel connector of a standard size and voltage.
• power switch (if drive is externally powered)
• unobtrusive activity and/or power LEDs

The last few enclosures I have purchased were from Oyen Digital, but OWS (aka MacSales) sells some of the same models as well.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[Sikh]

I always recommend sabrent. I have had there enclosures and docks for over 10 years and not a single one has broke or not given me the speeds I expected. At an old job, we use to ship 2-4T hard drives with data to customers as their "delivery" of the project work and not a single customer complained about the enclosures. We used Sabrent for those because I wanted to try them out and they did well. We bought over 100 in the first year and not a single one was DOA or didnt work as advertised. 

This is the newer version of what we use to order and works great: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-Free-Enclosure-Internal-EC-KSL3/dp/B08J5SLTJX/ref=sr_1_3?crid=22FAP5BRVSX8Q&keywords=sabrent+enclosure+3.5&qid=1676073079&sprefix=sabrent+enclosure+%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-3

I recently got this because my dock was old and I wanted a more enclosure style dock and it works great: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=sr_1_19?crid=2J7JHA9BP1Z28&keywords=sabrent+enclosure&qid=1676073144&sprefix=fingerprint%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-19

I put it through copying 6Ts of data onto an 8T and it did it at full USB 3 speeds without any slow downs, dropped files, etc. Highly recommend these enclosure

[ThaCrip]

On 10/02/2023 at 08:49, PaulATMOS said:

What sort of R/W speeds are you getting with the drive in the enclosure? Much difference compared to having the hard drive directly connected to a Sata port?

Basically the same. things are only limited by the hard drive itself, not the SATA/USB3 interface. so everything is as fast as expected.

but it's not surprising as even SATA II tops out at pretty much 300MB/s (SATA III I think is double that at 600MB/s) which is faster than the hard drives and I think even the basic USB3 is at least 300MB/s to which is faster than I think pretty much all hard drives currently...

...because I was looking at a random review of a 14TB Seagate (to get a ball park feel of things) and even that don't seem to be able to get more than about 250MB/s tops with average speed across whole drive being about 200MB/s etc which even SATA II can keep up with since it's 300MB/s. but even when hard drives start exceeding 300MB/s barrier, it's probably not going to have much effect in general unless until they exceed that 300MB/s barrier quite a bit. basically SATA II level speed is not going to become a problem for the foreseeable future for people in general and just about everyone has at least SATA II connection speeds unless their computer is fairly ancient as even my backup computer from 2005-2006 (I built it in March 2006 but it's pretty much high end 2005 tech) has SATA II ports on the motherboard. hell, even if someone has original SATA (SATA I), that's I think limited to 150MB/s which would still not be bad for a random hard drive since even on hard drives that do exceed 150MB/s, it won't be by all that much. but I guess if someone was filling a hard drive at SATA I speeds of 150MB/s and say they had a really large HDD that could average about 200MB/s, while that would add hours to the total transfer time to fill the drive by losing say about 50MB/s, all-in-all even 150MB/s ain't bad. and like I was saying, there is probably not many computers still in use that don't have at least SATA II connections at this point in time.

Edited February 11, 2023 by ThaCrip